Midwinter Fair

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

The plan of action for today was to go to the Wealden Times Midwinter fair at Bedgebury with Jane and Marion (we missed you Sarah).  There are usually lots of wonderful things to eat at such fairs so I had a substantial smoothie for breakfast to keep me feeling full.

The smoothie had pumpkin puree, almond milk, silken tofu, half an avocado and cinnamon.  yes, you did read that correctly, I put some avocado in it.  You can’t actually taste the avocado and I have had it sitting in the fridge for a few days so it needed eating up.  I sprinkled some coconut on top for texture and sweetness.

The fair was great but soooooo busy.  We couldn’t get to some of the stalls due to the crowds.  I guess that is good for the stallholders and organisers but frustrating of rthe shoppers.   Luckily, in the food marquee they had long trestle tables and we managed to get 3 seats together and enjoyed a delicious salmon tart with rocket salad and a coffee from Blackbird Catering.

There were so many fantastic local producers there.  Olives from Whitstable.

Apparently the tree these olives comes from is over 1,000 years old.  The olives and the tapenade made from them were amazing.  Possibly even better then chocolate !!!!!

Quex Foods were there with their delicious oils,

and crisps.  Oyster crisp anyone?

Or how about salt with vinegar from the local cider producer?

One of my personal favourites,  Silcocks Farm , were also there with their wonderful cheeses

and meats and cream.

And then there were Chocolates 🙂

But I resisted, even these gorgeous little heart shaped ones.

I really liked the Revolution Tea stand.   I didn’t buy any of these but I will be adding some to my Christmas present list,

I think I would like the sampler box so I can try one of each flavour.

We all bought some presents and some delicious foodie yummies and then it was time to head home.

We had shopped,  we had chatted,  we had laughed.

It was a fun morning and lunch out, thank you lovely ladies.

Supper was some of the rosemary and garlic bread I had bought from Judges Bakery, some of the olives I also bought today with sausages and salad.

I spent the evening at a very enjoyable quiz at one of the local schools, with some dear friends from the local village school.  It was great to see everyone and a good time was had by all.  Just a shame about all the pate, crackers and chocolates that were consumed by yours truly.  Oh well, tomorrow’s another day.

Posted in Keep It Local | Tagged , | 4 Comments

8 Mile Coastal Walk

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I walked further today than I have walked for years; I walked from Ramsgate to Margate. It was about 8 miles.  The Viking Cycle Trail says 7.5 miles but I had to backtrack several times so I think I walked about 8 miles.

I started the day with a bowl of gooseberry yogurt with raspberries and blueberries.

I started walking along by the beach in Ramsgate.  It was about 10 am but the sun was still low in the sky.  At least it was out 🙂

I love being beside the sea.  I love how it slaps and bangs against the steps, eddies and swirls, constantly moving.

My plan to walk along the beach was scuppered by high tide.  Look at that amazing blue sky and sunshine !

So I turned back and retraced my steps a little,

which gave me an opportunity to notice some bird nests for the first time.  I was pleased with this photo – I got a pigeon in mid flight, entering the little cave, high up in the cliff (I was using my telephoto lens).

This little cave was really high up too – I wonder why it was bricked up.

I reached Viking Bay, Broadstairs, which looks so peaceful out of season.

I was going to have a coffee in Morelli’s but then thought I ought to try some other places.  After all, Broadstairs does have plenty of other options for a coffee.  So I sat outside and enjoyed a latte at The Albion.  It was a bit weak but you couldn’t fault the view.

I continued round by the end of the little pier.

Past Bleak House and on to Stone Bay.

I stayed on the cliff tops for a while and came to North Foreland.

In front of the North Foreland light house was a field of cabbages.  This probably sounds ridiculous but they smelt really cabbagey.  I was surprised how much they smell so here’s a top tip – don’t live next to a cabbage farm!

This intrigued me.

This wowed me!

Kingsgate Bay.

Why do all those tankers just sit there?  Or are they moving but imperceptibly slowly?

Having walked past Joss Bay and Botany Bay, which I am very familiar with, I turned a corner and was walking along a promenade by a beach I have never walked along before.  I love discovering new places.

I was beginning to feel tired and the wind was whipping up and making me feel cold so I upped my pace a little.  I was also feeling hungry so wanted to be sitting in a cafe in the Old Town.  At Palm Bay the sand seemed to be reclaiming the promenade.

I confess I did turn a corner and hope to see the Turner Contemporary but there was still a way to walk.  I breathed deep and felt lucky to be able to walk beside the sea.  And aching legs must mean you are doing them some good 🙂

Finally the Turner loomed in to vision.  They are still kissing.

The Old Town in Margate is very pretty.

The Greedy Cow was a very welcome sight and I like that suggestion of what to eat.

I was thirsty, hungry and feeling very tired so I started with a pear juice which was perfect; cold, sweet and slipped down easily.

And kept me going until my burger with blue cheese turned up.  It was delicious.  I would have liked some more cheese but what was there was lovely.  As was the sweet chutney it was served with.  The coleslaw was crunchy and not too heavy on the mayonnaise.

There is a frequent bus service called “The Loop” which runs between Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate so I hopped on that.  It was good to be back and see Ramsgate basking in the afternoon sunshine.

By the time I picked up Harvey and got home I was knackered.  So supper was a quick and easy Nasi Goreng with vegetables, ham and eggs, with Hot Sauce on the side.

I also had a bowl of gooseberry yogurt with raspberries and blueberries.

I thoroughly enjoyed my walk today and felt very lucky to be able to do it and blessed with good weather.  But it has worn me out so I am posting this and going to bed.

Hope you manage to do some beautiful exercise too 🙂

Posted in Beach, Healthy Lifestyle | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Telephone Number

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

This week my Dad is moving.  He is not moving from my childhood home, he did that in February 2000, so I have no emotional attachment to the house they are leaving.  But I am surprised to have an attachment to their phone number.  My Dad has had the same telephone number since the mid 1970’s.  And that used to be my telephone number.  So having phoned that number to reach home for about 35 years, it will now be someone else’s number as they are moving out of the area.

I can vividly picture the first telephone they had.  It was a cumbersome cream coloured phone with a long coiled line.  Long enough to reach the stairs which is where I sat while I chatted to girlfriends about the latest episode of Starsky and Hutch or other such important matters to a teenager in the 1970’s.  Or I nervously made arrangements for my first ever date.  And then had endless phone calls with girlfriends to agonise over the details of said date.  That all took place on the phone reached by the number that this week will cease to be.

Actually, the number has changed over the years.  London phone numbers used to start with 01, but you never needed to dial the 01 unless you were overseas.  You just dialled the code and the number.  Then when the number of phones grew rapidly and the telephone exchange was in danger of running out of numbers, the outer London Boroughs, such as Sutton, where I grew up, became 0208 and then the code and number.  But the basic number remained the same.  Until Friday when I will have to learn a new code and number 😦

Breakfast was an easy smoothie today;  Greek yogurt, cashew nut butter, pumpkin puree, almond milk and a few pecan nuts.

It blended easily in to a creamy, thick, smooth, mildly flavoured liquid breakfast.  Pleasant and satisfying.

I had a lovely walk in the woods with the dogs.  I wished I had taken my camera as the light was amazing.  The sun was very bright but quite a thick mist lay over the fields.  In places the sun was visible in bright shafts of light, cutting through the trees.  I almost expected there to be a heavenly choir of angels to accompany such a vision.

I dithered about with lunch which is usually a mistake and so it was today.  I usually know exactly what I feel like but not today.  I had driven to Ramsgate and I think the problem was that I arrived very hungry.  I wandered round Waitrose, picking things up and putting them back, very unsure about what to have.  I then made a bad choice; a flapjack which I ate in the car, and 2 bread rolls, butter, smoked ham and a large bag of salad.

I don’t know what came over me because I then had 2 chocolate biscuits which were in the house.  The lesson learnt here is to have taken something more satisfying with me or to have gone earlier so I had time to prepare something better.

Dinner was lovely.  I went to the George and Dragon in Sandwich with Aunty Marion.

I had a delicious pepper stuffed with beans on a bed of goats cheese mash with tomatoes.  Followed by a warm chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce.  Naughty but nice.  It was wonderful to spend the evening with my lovely Aunty.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

So Many Apples

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Unless they are fed a diet of junk food and refined carbs, I believe children instinctively do not over eat.  So when Harvey decides he has eaten enough breakfast, I never insist he finishes the bowl.  But I hate throwing food away.  So I decided to add some pumpkin to his left over Oat Crunchie cereal and make a smoothie.

I made a smoothie with the left over cereal, 1/3 of a can of pumpkin puree, almond milk and a tbsp of clementine cashew nut butter.  Oh my!  It was great.  It was thick and smooth and the cereal gave it some lovely chewy texture as I only blended it slightly.  Delicious.

Before going to play tennis, I finished something I had started yesterday.  I made apple butter for the first time ever.  My apple tree has produced a bumper crop this year.  I have eaten plenty already and more are in the freezer, ready for pies or crumbles.  There are still so many apples left on the tree.

One of my dogs loves apples and he has eaten lots too.

There are so many apples this year so I looked around my favourite food blogs and came across apple butter.  This seems to have the texture and consistency of butter and is the colour of marmite.  It is made by slow cooking apples with sugar and spices for many many hours so it reduces.  I adapted this recipe from various that I looked up.

Apple Butter

  • 5 1/2 pounds of apples
  • 3 cups of sugar (I used 2 cups of golden granulated and 1 cup of soft brown)
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp of cloves which I ground finely in a pestle and mortar
  • 1/4 tsp salt

So I picked 5 and a half pounds of apples.

Mixed the sugar with the cinnamon, cloves and salt in a large bowl.  I peeled and chopped up each apple, and as I put it in the cooking dish I covered it with a tsp of the sugar and spice mix so the apples didn’t go brown.  I used a large Le Creuset (ironware) casserole dish with a tight fitting lid.

The apples nearly filled the dish.

I put the covered dish in the oven at 200 ° C for one hour and then reduced the heat to about 90 ° C for 9 hours.  Yes, you read it right, NINE hours.  I took it out and stirred it every 3 hours or so.  If you have a slow cooker, you can use that.

The apples brown as their sugars caramelise and they reduce in size.  The smell in the kitchen was quite heavenly.

After 9 hours cooking, there was too much liquid left so I turned the heat up to 200 ° C again and cooked it without the lid for about another hour and a half, checking regularly to make sure it doesn’t burn.

You eventually end up with this, and as you can see, the apples have reduced massively!

It was dark brown, very thick and tasted lovely.  Hard to believe this used to be apples and sugar.

I sterilised 4 jam jars by placing them in the oven on 180 ° C for half an hour.  I put 2 layers of newspaper on the oven shelf and stood the jars on that.  I put the jars in to a cold oven and then turned it on, so they adjusted to the heat and did not crack.

The apple butter was boiling hot and it sizzled and bubbled when I added it to the jars which was slightly disconcerting but the glass held firm and once it had cooled slightly, I put the lids on.

Le voila, 3 and a half jars of apple butter.  Ready to be stirred in to smoothies, porridge or natural yogurt or spread on bread, as it is or with cheese.  I think a slice of bread, spread with apple butter and a strong Cheddar would be delicious.

Yesterday the apples were on the tree, today they are reduced and caramelised and in a jar!

For lunch I wanted to use up some of the broth left over from Sundays gammon.  The gammon was cooked in cider with clove studded onions, leeks, carrots and potatoes.  I removed the onions and blitzed the rest in the blender so it was smooth.  I added some water and red lentils.

Red lentils take about half an hour to cook and lunch was ready.  It was a very thick soup and quite sweet due to the cider.  Very enjoyable.

In the afternoon I was peckish so I had some Greek yogurt with some almonds and apple butter.  It was lovely.  I am storing it in the fridge as I have never tried to sterilise a jar before and I don’t want it to go off.  It has set, like a jam.  The flavour is fabulous; apples and caramel.  Looking forward to the next spoonful.

Supper was brown rice with vegetables ( red and green pepper, pak choi and mange tout) stir fried in oyster sauce, prawns and a side salad of cherry tomatoes and cucumber.

Simple, delicious and nutritious and enjoyed by all, as evidenced by 3 cleared plates 🙂

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3 Stone

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I have lost 3 stone 🙂

Or if you are not British, and so do not know about our bizarre system for weighing people, I have lost 42 pounds :-).  If you are metric, I have lost 19.05 Kg.

The British use stones for weighing people.  Stones are an Imperial form of measurement and were originally used for weighing agricultural produce for trading purposes.  We no longer weigh agricultural produce in stones, just people.  1 stone is 14 pounds.

That was a significant milestone for me and I am delighted I made it.  My next milestone is 50 pounds.  I would like to lose that by Christmas.

So how much does 3 stone weigh.  Or rather, what else weighs 3 stone so you can understand how much I have lost.

A newborn Calf

An average 5 year old boy

A bushel of apples (?)

19 litres of water.

No wonder moving around is easier !

I feel really pleased with myself.  I was just disappointed to discover the WW consultant, Lisa, who I really liked, has had to leave.  She was always very encouraging and she would have been really pleased.  So I wish her luck with what she does next, and will continue on my weight loss journey without her cheerful smile and words of encouragement on a Monday evening.

What did I eat today?  Who cares.  I just lost 3 stone.

Posted in Lose Weight | 14 Comments

A Thanksgiving Party

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Last night I went to a wonderful Thanksgiving party, hosted by Sally and Troy.

Troy is American and so he does not miss out on probably the biggest celebration of the year back home, Sally throws a Thanksgiving party every year.  So all their friends like Thanksgiving too 🙂 .  Their daughters, Alex and Holly, were superstars, serving food and drinks, more food and lots more drinks!

All the guests at the party were asked to write down, anonymously, something they are thankful for.  Holly then read them all out.  It is a lovely custom to think about something for which we are thankful and to share it with others, many of whom are strangers, but many of the themes are common ground amongst us.

Sally and I were at school together so we have known each other practically for ever 🙂 .  Consequently there were other people at the party who I have known for most of my life too and it is always good to see them.  Michelle was there, sporting a new hairdo which looked lovely. Mwah!

It was a lovely party and this morning, when I woke up with a clear head, I was pleased I had driven and so went to bed sober.

I decided to try something a bit radical for breakfast, because despite being sober, it was a late night and I felt tired.  Oh She Glows makes a green smoothie called a “Green Monster” which even has its own website devoted to it!  I decided to try one to give myself a nutrient boost.  I picked a handful of green leaves from the garden.

And added them to 1 cup of coconut milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 2 small bananas, 1 tbsp Clementine Cashew Nut Butter and 3 ice cubes in the blender.  I blitzed until it was as smooth as possible.  This is not my most favourite smoothie ever, but it actually tasted better then I expected and was really quite pleasant.

Today was perfect walking weather so we all headed to the forest for a long walk.  We went to a part of the forest we had not been to before.

Lots of new bridges and streams to run along and jump over,

new paths to try and routes to choose,

and new views to discover.

Lots of the Fly Agaric.  So hard to believe something so pretty is so poisonous.  They look like little cakes covered in sugar to me !

We managed to get lost and walked for an hour and a half but it was such a beautiful day none of us minded.  I was hungry when we got back though so I cut up an apple and spread some with chocolate and hemp seed butter and some with hazelnut butter.  I also had 21 g of Stilton.

For supper tonight we had a gammon, boiled with lots of vegetables with a sweet potato crumble on the side.  I had seen this recipe on Oh She Glows last week and had been waiting for an opportunity to make it.  I thought a sweet vegetable dish would go well with boiled gammon.  I adapted the recipe to cope with the smaller quantity of sweet potatoes I had.  I also reduced the sugar as American sweet vegetable recipes are usually much too sweet for me.

Sweet potato Crumble

3 medium sweet potatoes
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.
Butter a casserole dish.
Peel and cut the sweet potato in to chunks and boil until soft (15 – 20 mins).
Mash with the butter, vanilla, maple syrup, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Put the mashed potato in the casserole dish.
Mix the topping ingredients together in  bowl and spread over the potato.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Dinner was delicious.  The gammon was moist and full of flavour and the sweet potato crumble went with it perfectly.  The flavours of the 2 dishes really complemented each other.  The gammon was cooked in cider with cloves and that really went well with the cinnamon and nutmeg in the sweet potato.

The crumble topping was slightly chewy and crunchy and the potato was soft and smooth.  Really delicious and one to make again.

Something else to be thankful for.

Posted in Healthy Lifestyle, Recipe | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Oodles of Noodles

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Saturday mornings always seem so busy in our house and I was popping in and out constantly.  It was one of those mornings when I would be in for 15 minutes before dashing off again, which is not long enough to do anything useful, such as eat breakfast.  Eventually, at 11:30 am I made a very simple breakfast with 60 g yogurt, 6 g sunflower seeds and one pear.

Pears are delicious at this time of the year.  A real pleasure.

I received a cryptic text from Sally this week which just said “P71.  Delicious”.  Say no more, know what I mean?  Oh yes I do.  So lunch today was p 71. i.e. ‘Herby, peanutty, noodly salad‘.  Obviously we are talking about Veg Every day!

Ingredients (serves 4 but 3 of us ate it all today!)

Dressing:

  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • Zest and juice of 1 lime
  • 1/2 a small red chilli (according to taste)
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tsp soft brown sugar
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1/2 tsp soy sauce

Salad:

  • 75 g roasted but not salted peanuts
  • 200 g Thai rice noodles or fine egg noodles
  • 150 g mange tout or beans or a combination (I used 50:50)
  • 1/2 a cucumber, cut in half lengthways and then sliced in to crescents
  • 6 spring onions, trimmed on the diagonal
  • About 12 basil leaves (ideally Thai but I used the usual ones), roughly chopped
  • Small bunch mint, roughly chopped
  • Small bunch coriander, roughly chopped

Method

  • Whisk all the dressing ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
  • Cook the noodles as per instructions on packet.  Remember to stir them or they will clump together.
  • When the noodles are cooked, drain and rinse under cold water and then add to the bowl with the dressing and stir so they are well coated in the dressing.

  • Lightly cook the beans and mange tout so they remain a bit crunchy.  I boiled them in salted water, 5 mins for the beans and 3 mins for the mange tout.
  • As soon as they are cooked, run under the cold tap.

  • Add the mange tout, beans, peanuts, cucumber, spring onions and herbs to the noodles and stir well.  Serve with soy sauce.

I also served mine with the trout leftover from yesterday.

This was refreshing and zingy and an interesting combination of flavours.  The trout went well with it too.  James and I really enjoyed it but Harvey didn’t like it cold so we heated his in a pan and then he enjoyed it.  Next time I will serve the peanuts in bigger pieces.

After lunch, Harvey and I took the dogs for a lovely walk in the woods.

It was busy over there today. We bumped in to Marion walking her dogs with a friend, twice, and a boy walking with his family who Harvey used to go to school with.  We also came across some curious leaf-faced folk.  You never know who you may see in the woods!

We saw lots of mushrooms and toadstools and berries.  This is such an interesting time of year to be outside.  Today was lovely and sunny but it does get dark too early 😦

I am posting the blog early today as I am going to a partay tonight.  Yes, we are donning our smart frock and black tie and heading to Epsom for Sally and Troy’s annual Thanksgiving party. Party on!

Have a good evening,  y’all.

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Brilliant Banana Breakfast

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I excelled myself at breakfast today.  Really, I did.  It looked good and tasted marvellous.  But it did frustrate me massively to make it and I ended up with a sink full of dirty dishes.  It was definitely worth it though.

At the moment I am really enjoying a healthy living blog called Oh She Glows which is written by a vegan lady living in Canada.  Her blog just won the ‘Best Overall Blog’ and ‘Best Veg Blog’ at the recent Food Buzz blog awards.  I enjoy her writing style and imaginative recipes.  Last night I started making her recipe for an amazing chocolate banana and oat breakfast.

Frozen Bananas with Chocolate and Overnight Oats
I put 1/3 of a cup of oats in a bowl with 2/3 of a cup of coconut milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds and 1/2 a tsp of vanilla.  I didn’t put it in the fridge but left it covered, on the side and today this is what it looked like.  The Chia seeds look like poppy seeds but having sat in coconut milk all night, they absorb the liquid and swell up.

Last night I also popped 3 small peeled bananas in the freezer.

In the morning the fun and games began.  I finally chipped the bananas off the side of the little bowl I had frozen them in (top tip: don’t freeze bananas in a pyrex bowl as they stick to the side!).

I put them in my blender to start with and added 1 tbsp chocolate and hempseed butter and 1 tsp cocoa powder.  Unfortunately, my blender needs water to blend something so the bananas clonked about in there until I got fed up with it and squished them in to the small blender.  The small blender did its best but they were definitely NOT whipped and aerated like the pictures on the Oh She Glows blog.  They were mixed together well though and did actually resemble ice-cream.  Yum!  If only that was a bowl of Ben and Jerry’s.

I thought going for multiple layers was a bit ambitious so I just went for 3; chocolate bananas on the bottom, overnight oats and chia seeds in the middle and a bit more chocolate banana on top.  I then added 1/2 a tbsp of desiccated coconut.  Doesn’t it look pretty?

I was impressed with the look of it.  How did it taste?

Just like a pudding 🙂  Gotta love a pudding for breakfast!  I am using different oats these days.  I am currently eating Flahavan’s Organic Porridge Oats which work much better in Bircher muesli/overnight oats then Jumbo oats.  I thoroughly enjoyed every single spoonful.  It was worth every single one of its 12 WW points.  If my tongue had been long enough I would have licked the glass too!

It was sunny today :-). I love crisp sunny mornings and the views on the way to school were lovely, with the mist sitting low in the valleys.

Jane popped round for a coffee which was lovely.  Jane makes me laugh and it’s always good to see her.

By lunch time I was in the mood for something creamy with potatoes.  I wanted soup and browsed through the New Covent Garden Soup Co Book of Soups.  I dislike the way the recipes are written and presented.  There are no pictures and each recipe is written in a font made to look like handwriting on a green page.  But the actual recipes are great.  Adapted from their recipe for ‘Arbroath Smokie and Scottish Cheddar Soup’, I give you:

 

Smoked Trout and Cheddar Soup

Ingredients (made 1 and a half bowl fuls which would do 2 small appetites or 1 large). 14 WW points.

  • 1 tsp butter
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large potato, peeled and quartered
  • 500 ml water
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 150 g smoked trout (weighed after the skin and bones had been taken off)
  • 75 g cheddar
  • Salt and pepper

Method

  • Melt butter in a large saucepan and fry onions gently until soft.
  • Add potato and water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Add the carrot and pepper and simmer for another 10 minutes.
  • While the potato is cooking, remove the skin and bones from the trout.  This is an ugly old fish.  Well sorry little fishy, but you are!

  • With the head chopped off and the skin peeled back, the lovely pink fish was revealed.  It really was very delicious.  I couldn’t resist eating some!  I measured out 150 g and put the rest in the fridge for another day.

Back to the recipe.

  • Allow the water and vegetables to cool slightly, then pour in to a blender with 2/3 of the smoked trout (approx 100 g) and blitz until smooth.

  • Pour back in to the saucepan, warm gently and add the grated Cheddar.
  • Season to taste and serve garnished with the remaining trout.

Yes, I happened to have a smoked trout in the fridge – truly!  I had been persuaded to try it by Julie of Sussex Smokers at the Farmers Market last week who promised me it would be delicious.  I wasn’t sure what to do with it so it had sat in my fridge until today.  The fish was lovely on its own and as a soup it was good.  The consistency was thick and smooth and not too fishy or cheesy.  I was going to add 2 tbsp creme fraiche but when I went to use it, it had gone off – well, it had sat in the fridge for nearly 2 weeks since I opened it!  This would have made it creamier and richer which would have been good but is not necessary.  I would say this is a successful soup.

I have enjoyed cooking today but it was great to know supper just needed reheating.  I had 2 portions of spinach dal and rice left over so popped them in a casserole dish together, put the lid on and heated in the oven on 170 ° C for about half an hour.  It was warmed through perfectly and the liquid in the dal kept the rice moist.  As you can see, I served it again with yogurt and mango chutney.

It was delicious.  One of those meals that improves with resting for a couple of days.

But nothing came close to that breakfast.  It was brilliant.

Posted in Recipe | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Keen on Quinoa

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Today started so badly.  My alarm clock did not work so I started my day late and did not have time for breakfast.  One of my new golden rules broken within a week – always make time for breakfast.  D’oh!

I had a very busy and stressful morning and returned home at midday feeling really fed up and hungry.  It was one of those mornings where everything went wrong.  I was so tempted to have a slice of buttered toast.  I managed to resist and set about making lunch.  I decided to focus my efforts on cooking a healthy lunch and think about how good all the food I was preparing was going to do my stressed and frazzled body and mind.  I actually felt quite euphoric that I kept out of the bread bin !

I needed to use up some of the vegetables I have in the fridge.  I am not sure quite how many people I thought I was feeding when I bought them all !  There are a lot there and they need eating up.  I decided to have some purple sprouting broccoli

with some brussel sprouts.  I steamed them and served them with some soy sauce alongside a quinoa based salad.

I have not eaten quinoa for a while and it is reputedly very nutritious.  I decided to make a salad with quinoa as the star attraction.

Quinoa, pronounced KEEN-wah, is the seed harvested from the Chenopodium or Goosefoot plant.  It is a member of the grass family and is closely related to beets and spinach.  Many people think it is a grain but it is not.

Some of the nutrition benefits are:

  • It is an excellent source of magnesium.
  • It is rich in calcium and iron.
  • It contains all nine essential amino acids which makes it a useful source of protein.
  • It is a good source of fibre.
  • It is low in calories despite being packed with so much minerals and nutrients, which makes it ideal for dieters.
  • It is gluten free, which makes it a great alternative to grains for people with gluten sensitivity.

Quinoa Salad with Yellow Pepper and Avocado

Ingredients (serves 1)

  • 60 g quinoa
  • 180 ml water
  • 1/2 a chicken stock cube
  • 1 egg, boiled
  • 1 small yellow pepper, chopped
  • 1 celery stick, chopped
  • 1/2 an avocado
  • Juice from 1/2 a lime
  • Coriander

Method

  1. Put the quinoa and water in a saucepan with the stock cube.  Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.
  2. Put the lid on the pan and leave the quinoa to absorb any left over water for 10 minutes.
  3. While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the other vegetables, except the avocado, peel and cut the boiled egg and squeeze the lime juice.
  4. When the quinoa is ready, tip the vegetables in the saucepan, slice the avocado and add to the quinoa, pour in the lime juice and stir gently to combine.
  5. Serve the quinoa salad and add the coriander, cooked vegetables (optional) and egg.

Bon appétit!

This portion of salad was 12 WW points.

Having realised that tasteless quinoa becomes tasty when you cook it with stock, I rather enjoy it these days.  This was a very tasty lunch.

To be honest,  the cooked vegetables did not enhance this meal and slightly distracted from the delicate flavour of the quinoa and raw vegetables.  So I ate them to get them out of the way and then enjoyed the quinoa salad.

I used Burford Brown eggs which we all love in this house.  The yolk is so orange and they taste delicious.  As did the rest of the salad.  Having remembered how much I like quinoa, I will be making this again.  It is tasty, nutritious and cheap so go ahead, buy some and try it.

Feeling full but not heavy and uncomfortable, I pottered about doing some chores at home, enjoying the sun coming out, albeit briefly.  My beautiful orange roses I received last week are just beginning to turn but they still look good and make me happy every time I pass them.

I dithered about a bit for supper.  I wanted to make fishcakes and was undecided as to whether to go for a comforting nursery style one or a more exotic Asian inspired one.  In the end I made a combination of both styles.  It was ok but I should have gone one way or the other.  This was a fishcake made with mashed potato, tuna, spring onion, one small onion, grated fresh ginger, finely chopped chilli and the zest and juice of half a lime.  I will share the recipe properly when I have perfected it because the taste was a little strange.   I covered the fishcake in a sprinkling of wholemeal flour before frying it and the outside was crispy and the inside was all moist.  The texture was perfect.  I just need to work on the flavour.

I served it with steamed carrots and broccoli.  I did eventually copy Harvey and added some ketchup to the fishcake.  Even including the dollop of ketchup and the tsp of butter I added to my vegetables, this dinner was only 11 WW points.

So an ok supper but a delicious lunch. And I have ended the day very low on points which will help to compensate for the extras I had yesterday.   I might make quinoa again tomorrow 🙂

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Pear-fect !

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Today I made a pear-fect breakfast.  Inspired once again by Kath Eats I had a go at searing some fresh pears.  It is very easy and tastes wonderful.  Somehow, searing the pears makes them taste more intense.  More pearey.  It is also lovely to have something warm to eat on such a cold morning.

Seared Pears.
To sear pears all you do is cut them in to quarters, cut out the core and then cut each quarter in half (for the mathematically astute amongst you, that will be 8 pieces of pear).  While you are doing this, warm a frying pan on the hob and then add a small amount of oil – about half a tbsp should be plenty.  I used coconut but use any oil you want to.  They took about 5 – 10 minutes to brown.

My breakfast today was 100 g Greek Yogurt, 1 pear, seared in coconut oil, 21 g chopped almonds and 13 g honey which came to 10 WW points.  It tasted amazing.

I think seared pears would go very nicely with muesli or granola too.

Harvey can not eat dairy so he had his with Alpro’s Vanilla Soya Yogurt (which is delicious even on its own) and I also added some raisins to his yogurt before piling on the pears, nuts and honey.  Today’s breakfast got a big thumbs up from both of us.

Having had a good night’s sleep and feeling inspired and perky following such a lovely breakfast, I decided to get outside and do some gardening.  Some of the veggies are past their prime and needed to go.  The radishes had become too large and tasted “woody” plus I had some newer ones so the old ones were hauled out and thrown in the wheelbarrow.  I also pulled up the overgrown rocket and the slug infested spinach.  The stalks of the latter were beginning to go slimy so they were definitely past it.  I needed to clear some space to make room for the onions and garlic I want to plant.  It didn’t take too long to fill the wheelbarrow!

There is still lots of good eating in those beds and they look much tidier now.  Unfortunately my hands were then too cold to plant the onions and garlic so they get to live on in their carrier bag another day.

I am feeling uber healthy today and want to have a vegetable based lunch.  I have a punnett of tasteless cherry tomatoes.  I can’t bring myself to eat them in a salad so I decided to roast them with a red pepper.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Pesto

Ingredients

  • 1/2 a punnett of cherry tomatoes
  • 1 red pepper
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • Handful of fresh basil
  • 10 g Walnuts (or other nut of your choice)
  • 70 ml olive oil
  • salt and pepper

 I cut them in half, sliced the red pepper and brushed on 1 tsp of olive oil, then added salt and pepper.  I roasted them for half an hour.  After about 10 minutes I decided garlic would go well with it too so I added 2 cloves of garlic for the last 15 minutes.

When the vegetables were roasted and cooled, I blitzed them in a small blender with fresh basil, walnuts, olive oil and salt and pepper.

Wow it was good.  Nice and thick, like a good humus.  And the taste!  Sweet and full-flavoured, it was good enough to eat by the spoonful.

I chopped up some celery, broccoli and white cabbage.  My initial thought was to dip the raw vegetables in to the pesto, use it like a dip.

But I then decided I wanted it all warm so I treated the vegetables as pasta.  I steamed them quickly in a wide pan and then added the pesto to the cooked vegetables.  It was really delicious.  One of the best lunches I have had for ages.

Unfortunately it had 25 WW points in it !!!!  I couldn’t believe it.  That was a lesson learnt the hard way and in future I need to calculate the points in a meal before I eat it.  I used 1/4 of a cup of olive oil to make the pesto which looked like a tiny amount.  But that is 70 ml which is where most of the points came from.  At least they were healthy points and I am quite sure that healthy calories do not pile on the fat like unhealthy calories do.

I did a lovely hour long walk in the forest with Lucy this afternoon.  We managed to get out despite the cold and grey and murky weather.  It was good to get a walk in but when I came home I had a ham sandwich as I was so peckish.

Then off to my cousin Fiona’s for dinner.  Technically her husband is my cousin but I always think of her as my cousin too.  Judy joined us and we three had a lovely evening.  We had a delicious Morroccan chicken dish with rice and salad.  Inevitably wine was drunk and surprisingly we found things to chat about for hours :-).

Fresh sweet and juicy pineapple for dessert with some wicked and irresistible GU chocolate naughties, of which I had at least 5 !!  EEK – WW points galore.  Oh well, stuff happens.  Good night all.

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